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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29673090">There's Nothing I Can't Be</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenelystrange/pseuds/serenelystrange'>serenelystrange</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Leverage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Multi, Pining, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tattoos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:07:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29673090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenelystrange/pseuds/serenelystrange</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It figures; the first crush Eliot has on another man in ages already has a perfect soulmate. He has no chance. <br/>Or so he thinks. </p>
<p>For GinnyBloomPotter - Thank you for participating in the Leverage Secret Santa Exchange this year!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alec Hardison/Parker, Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Leverage Secret Santa Exchange (Mod Gifts)</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>There's Nothing I Can't Be</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBloomPotter/gifts">GinnyBloomPotter</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hey man, you got a charger I can use?”</p>
<p>Eliot looks up from the already pristinely clean bar-top he’d been wiping down and raises an inquisitive eyebrow at the tall man who has just come in, dead phone clinging in his hand.</p>
<p>At eye contact, the man moves forward from the door, casting a glance around the empty pub before approaching Eliot and standing across the bar from him.</p>
<p>“Don’t have an iPhone,” Eliot says, shrugging apologetically.</p>
<p>“Well, shit,” the man says, before slumping onto a barstool and placing the phone down before settling his chin on his cuffed hands.</p>
<p>“Rough day?” Eliot asks, eyeing the man’s rain-soaked clothes and his general exhausted demeanor.</p>
<p>The man laughs wryly and rubs his hands over his eyes before sitting up straighter and letting his hands lie on the counter.</p>
<p>“You could say that,” he replies. “I’m supposed to be meeting my girlfriend, but I got caught up in a meeting, and then caught in the rain, and my phone died so I couldn’t call an uber. And I forgot my bag at work that had my charger and office key card, and now the office is closed so I can’t even get that back until tomorrow. It’s been a day.”</p>
<p>At the end of his little tirade, he laughs at himself and looks up at Eliot with such sad brown eyes that he finds himself suddenly willing to put more effort than he probably should into helping a stranger.</p>
<p>“Let me check the lost and found,” Eliot offers. “Sometimes people forget chargers.”</p>
<p>The man’s face lights up at the prospect and he gives Eliot a wide grin.</p>
<p>“Thanks, man. That’d be great!”</p>
<p>Eliot just nods, flustered under the sudden sunshine of the man’s smile. He ducks behind the bar and digs through the plastic bin that serves as the lost and found and rifles through it, pulling out three different types of charging cords. He pops back up, cords clutched in his hand. He offers them to the man stiltedly.</p>
<p>“One of these might work,” he says gruffly.</p>
<p>The man smiles again, easily spotting an iphone cord among them and wiggling it out from Eliot’s sturdy grasp.</p>
<p>“Perfect!” he says, before pulling his hand away sharply as what feels like a bolt of electricity shoots between them where their hands are still touching.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” he says, rubbing his hand against his chest and giving Eliot an amused glance. “Static shock is a bitch sometimes.”</p>
<p>“No problem,” Eliot says. “There’s some plugs against the bar below, charge up. I’ll get you a drink. I’d say a beer, but you look like a drowned rat, so maybe some coffee?”</p>
<p>“Ooh,” the man says, “Coffee would be amazing, actually. I still have my wallet, thankfully!”</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it,” Eliot says, waving his offer away. “This place will be dead for at least another hour, you’re giving me something to do. I could use some coffee anyway.”</p>
<p>The man smiles again and reaches out a hand to shake Eliot’s. “I’m Hardison, by the way. Well, Alec Hardison. But friends call me Hardison.”</p>
<p>“Hardison,” Eliot repeats, grasping the man’s large warm hand in his own. “It suits you. I’m Eliot.”</p>
<p>“Nice to meet you,” Hardison says, their handshake lingering for just a little bit too long before he remembers to take his hand back.</p>
<p>His hand tingles for a full minute after, even as Eliot goes into the back to make the coffee, and Hardison thinks there must be something in the air.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Fuck,” Hardison practically moans after taking a long sip of the coffee Eliot made. “Marry me and make this coffee every day, ok? I’ll fix all of your electronics forever.”</p>
<p>His eyes widen in panic a moment later as he realizes he just proposed to a seemingly straight white man in a small town bar, and he hastens to backpeddle.</p>
<p>“I mean, not that I think you’re gay or anything, not that there’s anything wrong with that obviously, I just…shit, this coffee is really good and my mouth moves ahead of my brain sometimes. Please don’t hate crime me.”</p>
<p>“Jesus,” Eliot says, snorting with what is probably inappropriate laughter. “Maybe I should have given you decaf.”</p>
<p>“Don’t you dare,” Hardison says, holding the mug to his chest protectively and giving Eliot a withering glare.</p>
<p>Eliot smirks.</p>
<p>“My ex-boyfriend used to give me that same look when I threatened him with decaf.”</p>
<p>“Oh thank god,” Hardison says, his anxiety visibly deflating as he relaxes again.</p>
<p>“Your girlfriend might have a problem with you marrying someone else, though,” Eliot feels compelled to point out.</p>
<p>“Parker’s great,” Hardison says. “She’d let me have a husband if he made us coffee.”</p>
<p>Eliot grins, unable to tease him just a little. “I bake, too.”</p>
<p>“You’re awful and I hate you,” Hardison says, gasping with mock outrage.</p>
<p>Eliot cackles with delight, uncaring how dumb he must look doing so.</p>
<p>Hardison just looks on with an amused expression on his face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Just then, his phone lights up with the picture of a pretty blonde woman holding what looks to be a katana.</p>
<p>“Parker, I assume?” Eliot asks, eyeing the phone. “She’s cute.”</p>
<p>“Damn right,” Hardison says, swiping the phone on and putting it to his ear.</p>
<p>“Hey babe,” he says warmly, giving Eliot a quick smile before focusing on his call.</p>
<p>Eliot decides to go do some inventory in the back and leave Hardison to his conversation. He pretends the sight of the beautiful man so obviously happy and in love with the equally beautiful woman doesn’t affect him at all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eliot spends longer than he should hiding in the back, and by the time he comes back out to the bar, there’s a woman he assumes is Parker hopped up on the stool next to Hardison, laughing at something he’s showing her on his phone. They haven’t noticed him in the doorway yet, and Eliot notices several things all at once.</p>
<p>One, Parker’s phone picture didn’t remotely do her justice. She’s stunningly beautiful in person, with long blonde hair waving softly around her unfairly pretty face.</p>
<p>Two, she has a tattoo of a white jasmine flower on the inside of her right wrist, with a hazy purple outline giving it an almost watercolor look.</p>
<p>Three, Hardison has a complementing tattoo on his left write, a pretty purple jasmine flower against a white background, the design popping prettily against the dark brown of his skin.</p>
<p>Four, and most importantly in Eliot’s opinion, is the fact that even from where he is standing several feet away, he can see the faint glow between their wrists.</p>
<p>He’s managed to crush on a guy with an honest to god Soulmate. Figures.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey,” Hardison says as Eliot walks back over. “This is Parker.”</p>
<p>“Ma’am,” Eliot drawls, shaking Parker’s hand and giving her a polite smile. To his surprise, her hand jolts in his and they pull apart as the air crackles between them.</p>
<p>“You weren’t kidding about the static in here,” Parker says, frowning at Hardison slightly. She turns back to Eliot. “Nice to meet you, though. Thanks for taking pity on this dumbass.”</p>
<p>“I’m your dumbass,” Hardison says, flicking Parker’s arm playfully.</p>
<p>Parker rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>“Thank you for taking pity on <em>my</em> dumbass,” she amends.</p>
<p>“That’s better,” Hardison says mildly, eyes still trained on some buzzfeed article he has pulled up on his phone.</p>
<p>Eliot means to say you’re welcome, or apologize for the sudden static electricity of his bar, or really say anything except what actually comes out of his mouth.</p>
<p>“Soulmates, huh?” is what he says, instantly feeling his cheeks flush in embarrassment as Parker and Hardison turn their faces to him in sync.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Hardison says, grinning dopily over at Parker before looking back at Eliot. “Crazy, right? Who knew it even still happened these days.”</p>
<p>“I did,” Parker says. “I told Hardison the day we met that he was stuck with me forever.”</p>
<p>Eliot laughs at that, because he can practically see it as it unfolded.</p>
<p>“And then she took three years to agree to date me,” Hardison says, nudging Parker’s shoulder gently.</p>
<p>“Well, you’re the one who said you’d wait,” Parker says, huffing softly.</p>
<p>“Would’ve waited a hundred more years,” Hardison says, his voice unabashedly sappy.</p>
<p>“We got the tattoos last year,” Parker says, gesturing briefly to their wrists. “Since actual soul-marks evolved out years ago.”</p>
<p>“I’m not convinced they ever existed,” Hardison says. “I mean, the amount of variation in the marks needed to be 100% itself is astronomical.”</p>
<p>“My great grandparents had marks,” Eliot says before he can stop himself. “Little blobs that looked almost like pineapples if you squinted.”</p>
<p>“No shit?” Hardison asks, leaning forward with interest.</p>
<p>“None whatsoever,” Eliot says. “They died when I was 8, but I still remembering seeing the marks. They glowed, even brighter than yours. They loved each other a lot, I think.”</p>
<p>“Must have,” Hardison agrees, smiling softly. “That’s really nice.”</p>
<p>“What about you?” Parker asks, curiously. “You seem nice, and you’ve got all of that going on,” she says, gesturing at Eliot’s general attractiveness, causing him to flush again. “Nobody soulmate worthy shown up yet?”</p>
<p>“I thought so a few times,” Eliot confesses. “My girlfriend growing up back home, at first. But she moved away to college and we ended up better as friends.”</p>
<p>“And then the ex-boyfriend who hates decaf?” Hardison guesses, eyes twinkling with the amusement of having a shared joke.</p>
<p>“The very one,” Eliot confirms. “I should’ve known that wouldn’t work out though. We butted heads pretty much everywhere but the bedroom.”</p>
<p>“Scandalous,” Hardison says, grinning. “Must have been good though, to keep trying.”</p>
<p>Eliot just smirks and mimes zipping up his lips.</p>
<p>Hardison and Parker laugh, before Parker sits up straight and gives Eliot an assessing look.</p>
<p>“How long has the static shock been a problem?” she asks, confusing Eliot with the topic jump.</p>
<p>“Just today, I think,” Eliot says, shrugging. “Never noticed it before, anyway. Must be the weather acting up or something.”</p>
<p>“Or something,” Parker agrees, before getting to her feet.</p>
<p>“We need to get going,” she says, tugging Hardison’s sleeve until he moves.</p>
<p>Eliot nods, eyeing the clock and knowing the after work crowd will be arriving any minute.</p>
<p>“Thanks again,” Hardison says, handing over the unplugged charger.</p>
<p>“Anytime,” Eliot says, surprised to realize just how much he means it.</p>
<p>“Maybe we’ll see you again?” Hardison says. “For drinks that we actually pay for next time.”</p>
<p>“We’ll definitely be back,” Parker adds. “Hardison says you bake. I really love brownies, just like…so you know.”</p>
<p>“Noted,” Eliot says, giving them a crooked grin as Parker backs away towards the door, Hardison beside her to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.</p>
<p>And then they’re out the door and Eliot releases a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.</p>
<p>Fuck his entire life.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A week goes by with no sign on Hardison or Parker. Eliot realizes belatedly that he maybe should have asked for a phone number, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. His subconscious however, disagrees, and plagues him with dreams of the pair every night. Sometimes it’s nothing more than the three of them talking at the bar like they had before. But sometimes Eliot wakes up covered in sweat, boxers sticky against his skin, still trembling from the intensity of the dream sex.</p>
<p>He tries to shake it all from his mind, but the dreams linger. Eliot’s never been one to have sex dreams really, never mind ones with such vivid detail. But now he wakes up feeling like he’s been forcefully pulled away from the only touch that soothes burning skin.</p>
<p>Deciding he’s probably just been lonely too long, he takes a pretty patron up on her offer of a real date the next weekend. She has a sweet smile and sparkling green eyes, but when she leans in for a goodnight kiss, Eliot feels nothing but cold dread.</p>
<p>They don’t go on date number two.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You!”</p>
<p>It’s just after 2AM, and Eliot’s closing up the bar when Parker bursts into the room, Hardison hot on her heels.</p>
<p>Eliot, despite being yelled at for seemingly no reason at 2 in the goddamn morning, feels a wave of relief wash over his entire body at the sight of them.</p>
<p>“Me?” he asks, barely getting the word out before Parker is in front of him, one hand grasping the collar of his t-shirt.</p>
<p>“Can I kiss you?” she asks. And of all the things he might have expected to hear, this was definitely not one of them. But he nods anyway, as every cell in his body seems to be singing with the answer.</p>
<p>Parker leans in and kisses him soundly on the mouth, softer than he expected for all the energy she had whirled in with.</p>
<p>At once, his whole body lights up with static. He thinks vaguely that this must be what it feels like to be an old tv when the antenna wasn’t working. But in the next moment, the static settles down to something else. It’s still a current, but it feels good now, like a massage at the soul level. He can’t help but moan into the kiss.</p>
<p>Parker pulls back, and gives him a wide-eyed look.</p>
<p>“I didn’t actually expect that to work,” she says, looking over at Hardison with a flash of concern. “I’m not sure what to do now,” she admits.</p>
<p>“I think you should let me try,” Hardison says, waiting for Eliot’s nod before leaning down to claim his own kiss against Eliot’s mouth.</p>
<p>It’s the same at first, the buzzing static that settles into the pleasant current as they kiss. But then Eliot hears Parker murmur something about an idea, and the next thing he knows, she has one hand on his wrist and the other on Hardison, and the last thing he remembers before passing out is the wave of pleasure that he’s sure lit him up like a Christmas tree from the inside out.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eliot comes to a few minutes later, surprised to find himself propped up on the couch in the back of the bar, Parker and Hardison on either side of him.</p>
<p>“What the fuck was that?” he asks in awe, skin still trembling slightly from their proximity.</p>
<p>“Pretty sure you know the answer to that,” Parker says, giving him a teasing grin.</p>
<p>“I keep dreaming about you two,” Eliot says. “I’ve barely gotten any sleep since the day you were here last.”</p>
<p>“Us either,” Hardison says. “I thought maybe we were just worked up at first, you know? But the dreams kept coming, night after night.”</p>
<p>“And so did we,” Parker adds, smirking.</p>
<p>Eliot rolls his eyes at the awful joke, but finds himself smiling anyway.</p>
<p>“So, soulmates, huh?” he asks, looking between Parker and Hardison with a hopeful gaze.</p>
<p>“Pretty crazy, right?” Hardison says in reply.</p>
<p>“We don’t know anything about each other,” he says, even though his entire body is humming with happiness at having his soulmates near him.</p>
<p>“We’ll learn,” Parker says, sounding so damn sure about it that Eliot can’t help but nod along in agreement.</p>
<p>After a moment, Eliot gives in to the urge and leans into Hardison, resting his head against his shoulder. He holds out an arm and Parker tucks herself against his chest, resting her head against his collarbone. Hardison reaches down and runs his hand through her hair before settling it down against Eliot’s chest.</p>
<p>“How do you feel about jasmine?” Hardison asks Eliot as they’re cuddled up together. Parker snickers at the question but gives Eliot time to answer.</p>
<p>Eliot can already see the tattoos he’ll end up getting, white and purple flowers twined around the blue one he’s picked for himself. He’s filled suddenly with a surge of emotion that he doesn’t even know how to name, and it almost chokes him up before he can answer.</p>
<p>“Positively,” he says at last, brain failing to provide him with more than that for the time being.</p>
<p>Parker looks up and shares a small grin with Hardison over Eliot’s head.</p>
<p>“We can work with that,” Parker says, running her fingernails across Eliot’s chest pleasantly.</p>
<p>Eliot sighs into the touch, practically a puddle of goo between his newfound soulmates.</p>
<p>“So can I.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>THE END</p>
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